In the election of 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected as president as a selectional candidate with the support of the northern Republican party because of his plan to abolish slavery. Slavery was one of the main issues in the Southern states, but once Lincoln entered office, his initial plan to do away with slavery changed. With the hope that Lincoln would execute his plan, the southerners were exceptionally threatened to find out that Lincoln decided to control slavery in the south, rather than abolish it. War was moderately considered by Lincoln regarding slavery, which brought on dissension among the North and South. Slavery was a controversial topic among the U.S. citizens during this era. In the election, Lincoln did not win a single southern state vote, because of his reputation as being moderate on the slavery question. Although Lincoln initially arranged to abolish slavery in the south, he decided that he would control it in the south and refrain from allowing it to spread throughout the western territories. Lincoln contemplated war if slavery distributed into the western territories from the southern states. Since slavery already existed in the south, he did not have the motive to withdraw it because of the success it brought to the economy. With his …show more content…
The argument on slavery between the two was named the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. Both having similar but also opposing viewpoints of slavery, the two men were influences on one another when it came to the Civil War. Neither Douglas’s or Lincoln’s viewpoints thoroughly exceeded either of the southern or northern Democrats satisfactions. This brought tension and complications deciding which candidate fit their expectations. In a sense, Lincoln would have gone to war if the expansion of slavery were to proceed in western states. Although Douglas was an addition to the reasoning behind the Civil War, it would of started without